“Ah, my tale.  It is a tale of danger, heroism, and cowardice and I hope it ends here in these ruins.”  There he paused and seemed to wait for her to comment.

      “Ends here?  How?  Why?”

     “Let me start at the beginning.  Many long ago and far aways, my great, great, great, ever so great-grandfather ran afoul a stone troll.  The very one I have tracked to these ruins.”

     “But, Sir Cragger, I am after the very same troll, he holds my sisters prisoner.”

     “Then it must be by the fates that I was drawn here.  Let me continue my tale and we shall see if it is so.  Grandfather was deep in the family mine digging for gems as we do when he opened a new cavern with the strike of a hammer.  He had no idea there was one behind the wall he’d been hammering on for a lifetime.”  Cragger reached for his pack and drew out a wine skin.  He offered it to Mavelle but she shook her head.

     “No thank you.  Please go on.”

     Cragger drank deep, wiped his mouth on his sleeve, belched, begged her pardon, and continued.  “Grandfather began to mine the new tunnel finding better jewels there than we’d found for centuries in the old mines.  At the end of the shift, he came out of the mine with more quality jewels than our family had seen in a century.  A family council met and the Elders decided to have everyone mine that tunnel.  No one suspected the danger and horror that lurked deep within.”